The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Geranium plant, botanically known as Pelargonium×hortorum, commercially known as a Zonal Geranium, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Clips Whitspla’.
The new Geranium is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Gilroy, Calif. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new Zonal Geranium cultivars with good basal branching, freely flowering habit and attractive flower and foliage coloration.
The new Geranium originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in April, 2000 of a proprietary Pelargonium×hortorum selection identified as code number 8553-1, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with the Pelargonium×hortorum cultivar BFP-1700, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 11,397, as the male, or pollen, parent. The cultivar Clips Whitspla was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny from this cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Gilroy, Calif. in September, 2000.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings at Gilroy, Calif., since September, 2000 has shown that the unique features of this new Geranium are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.